Automatic emergency lock for safes



Aug. 9 1927.

E. M. JONES AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY LOCK FOR SAFES Filed July 17.

I 2 Sheets--Sheet,l

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19 .7 Aug 27 E. M. JONES AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY LOCK FOR SAFES Sheets-Sheet 2 7 Filed July 17. 1.922

Patented Aug. 9, 1927.

UNITED? STATES 1,638,204 PATENT. OFFICE;

EARLE M. JONES, or MINNEAroLIs, MINNEso'rA, AssIeNonro o. iaueonm'roox com- PANY, F MINNEAPOLIS, MIN nsoranconmm'rIoN or'mm-Nnsoa'n;

AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY nook ronflsArns. 4

Application filed July t,

My invention relates 'to safes and, more particularly, to bank vaults, safety deposit vaults, and the like, which have swinging doors equipped with sliding lock bolts that 5 are arranged to be locked by primary lock mechanism such as combination locks and time locks. V

The primary lock mechanism, under all ordinary conditions and, in fact, as long as it is operative, will serve to hold' the lock bolt in a door-locking position. However, it has many times happened that robbers or safe blowers have blown the primary lock mechanism off the safe door, thereby releasing the lock' bolts and permitting the safe door to be opened. J

My invention provides a secondary boltlock and means whereby said secondary look, under normal conditions,'will be restrained or held out of action, permitting-"thelock bolts to be controlled by the primary lock mechanism in the customaryv way. This secondary lock-restraining means is arranged to be disrupted or released whenever the primary lock is blown or forced out of position or otherwise seriously tampered with.

Said secondary lock is located on the inner side of the door or withinthe safe where it is not accessible iorresetting .or, other mechanical manipulation by a person outside of the safe. Hence, as an important feature of the invention, I provide an electromagnetic releasing device including circuit adapted to be Closedby a-switch outside of the safe to release said secondarylock and thereby permit the opening of the safe door. Without such a device, vit would be impos sible,-without destroying parts ofthe door 7 or safe, to open the safe door after the secondary lock had once been set into action, The place and manner oiclosing this lockreleasing circuit would be a matter o f secret and unknown to burglars :or safe robbers.

The bolt-locking element of .the above briefly described secondary lock is set. under yielding strain to move into a bolt-locking, position, but is restrained by a device preterably in the "form or a very small cable or wire passed over suitable guides and made to follow a tortuous course; One end of this restraining cable is preferably anchored to. the-case of the primary lock mechanism and certain ofthe cable guides arearranged to -be-..dis loca.ted'when theiprimary lock caseis moved from normal or operative position;

ant for releasing the bolt-e 1922'." Serial. No. 575,453.

With this arrangement, the secondary lock will be released Whenever the cable anchor by boring, blasting or otherwise without causing thesecon-dary'lock to function and lbckth esaie belt or bolts. I

' As means for sounding-a signal whenever the secondary look, by any ofthemeans suggested, is thrown into 7 action, there is provided a signal circuit thatis normally held open when the bolt-locking element of the secondary lock is retracted, but which circuit will be closed to sound the alarm whenever said bolt-locking element of the second'ary lock is released and rendered operative. o

In the accompanying drawings, which ll lust-rate the invention, like characters indicate like parts: throughout the several views. Rei'erringto the drawings y Fig. I is an elevation looking at the inner face of a safe door and; showing my invention applied thereto; i i

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary v on the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic v-i wiring of the signal circuit and of t'he'cirngaging element ertical' section ofthe secondary lock;

Fig. 4 is afragmentar ingthe case of the prima-rylock and, associated therewith, a'displ'a'ceable support for certaincable guides; I

Fig.5 is aside elevation of the secondary lock showing the same ap'pliedtothe safe r door and position to engage the safe lock bolt, some parts being" sectioned; and

Fig. 6 is a side elevation showing the same construction as illustrated inlFig. 5, except that the lock shoulderof the safe l' kfbolt is of modified form. f r In the drawings, the numeral 7 indicates y perspective show an ordinary safe door provided with an 'innerwface flange Sand a sliding lock boltj9.

'llhis door, as viewed inFig. 1,-woiuld be hinged at its left-hand edge, and the lock. bolt 9,,which in Figlisshown in a doorlocking position, wpuld be released sliding movementtoward the-left. .The lock bolt is provided with a-stop shoulder, which,

7 in the main views, is afforded by a' projecting ew showing the i normally Hinged to the bracket '14: at 16 is an arma-- tact 20.

split collar 10 rigidly secured thereto by screws or other suitable means.

The numeral 11 indicates the case of the primary door lock, which may be assumed to be tumbler-operated in the customary way and to have the usual connections, not shown, for locking the bolt 9 in a door-locking-position. As shown, this case 11'is secured to a side plate 12, which, in turn, by means of screws or otherwise, is rigidly secured to the inner surface of the door.

.The secondary bolt lock involves parts that are preferably contained within a casing 13, which, by means of screws or otherwise, is rigidly secured to the door with its lower portion spaced but slightly above the lock bolt 9. Secured within the case13 is a bearing bracket 14 to which is I attached a deenergized electromagnet 15.

ture 17 that is adapted to be made subject to the electromagnet 15. On the bracket 14 is a guide clip 18 of insulating material, through which works freely the stem 19 of a movable electric con The lower end of the stem 19 is attached to the free end of the armatureacting lock piece 17. A coiled spring 21, placed around the stem 19 and compressed between the clip 18 and lock piece 17,1s normally held compressed when the magnet 15 is energized, but, when said magnet is deenergized, forces the lock piece 17- in the path of the lock collar 10.

The electrical contact 20 is connected at one end to a. small cable 22, preferably a fine wire, that runs over a plurality of guides, presently to be noted, andat its other end is anchored, as shown, by means of an anchor screw 23 adjustably connected by nuts 24: to acsmall bracket 25 secured on the extended plate 12 of the primary lock case.

As shown, said cable is passed over guide sheaves 26'and 27 journaled on the inner surface of the door. Said cable 22 also runs over displaceable guidesheaves 28 journaled on studs 29 projected from the inner side of the door at points just above the primary lock. A coiled spring 30 is interposed in the cable 22 to give elasticity thereto and to prevent the same from being broken accidentally by expansion and contraction and also to keep the cable always under approximately constant tension. 7

As a'means for dislocating the sheaves 28, should the primary lock case be blown off or forced from position, there is provideda cable-releasing device that will be dislocated or acted upon'by dislocation or serious distortion ofthe primary look. This tTlpIfingClQVlCG 31, as shown, is cross-shaped" in elevation'and its depending leg is offset so that it overlies and closely engages the inner side, of the primary case 11, as bestshown in Figs. 1 and 2. This offsetting of the lower leg of the tripping device, as shown, is provided .by a tripping finger 32 bent angular and having its horizontal upper portion rigidly but adjustab'ly secured to the horizontally bent lower-end portion of the tripping device 31 by a small" nutequipped screw 33. The body of the tripping device 31is normally laid fiat against the inner surface of the door with its arms back of the sheaves 28. The said arms are perforated so that the studs 29 are freely passed therethrough. I

Here it will be noted that the sheaves 28 are loosely placed on the studs 29 so or dislocated, the tripping device 31 will be moved inward, thereby forcing the guide sheaves 28 off from the studs 29, and this will'relea-se the cable 22 and permit the,

.sn 7 that, if the lock case 11 is forced inward spring 21 to force the latch piece-17 into is grounded through metallic parts of the door and lock mechanism, which parts constitute elements in the electric circuit"35. The wires of the circuit 35 will be hidden in the safe-work and the gong and'battery will be'suitably positioned outside of" the safe or vault. v i

The coil of the electromagnet 15 isina circuit 38, whichincludes a battery '39 and a switch or circuit closer 10.

Normally,

of course, the switch 10 will be open and the magnet 15 deenergized. Asalready in"- dicated, the wires of the-circuit 38 will be concealed and the switch 10 will be-located at some place known only to employees of the bank. 1 W

The structure illustratedinFig. 6" differs from that above described only in that the lock bolt- 9, instead of having a shoulder afforded by a collar, has a lock notch 9 with which the lock element able when released. i

The operation of the device above-deiscribed, summarized, issubstantially, as" folk ows:

17 is. engage- Normally, the circuit 38 will. be 'open and the magnet 15 will be deenergized soithat the lock element 17 isheld'in itsretracted or inoperative position and thelock bolt- 9. may be then operated in the customary way.

' the lock piece 17 and sounding of-the alarm gong 37. The same results will take place it, from any cause, the cable 22 be broken or disrupted, and as the cable is extended over considerable portions of the door, it will be practically impossible for the door to be seriously distorted without disrupting the cable. Said cable, preferably a line wire, is easily broken and may be made, in whole or in part, of a metal or alloy that will break down under comparatively low degrees of temperature, so that said cable will be disrupted in case a torch or blast isused toburn away portions otthe door.

It, for any of the above causes, the secondary bolt lock 17 has been thrown into action, the bolt can, by a person knowing the location of the switch 40 and the function thereof, be released simply by closing the circuit 38 and thereby releasing the door lock bolt. This secondary lock, therefore, ali'ords very great additional protection against sate blowers and burglars. Aside from the operation as a secondary lock, the releasing mechanism for setting the alarm into action is highly important.

The nuts 25 on the screw 23 afiord means for setting the restraining cable under just the right tension to overcome the spring 21. Said spring 21, it will be observed, is the element that actually throws the secondary lock into action when it is released from the normal restraining action of the cable.

The door-locking element on. all standard sates and Vaults is in the iormof an endwise movable or slidablerod, but it will be understood that the term lock bolt is herein used in a broad and liberal sense to include,

generally, door-locking elements or lock From what has been said, it will be understood that the invention as above described is capable of very considerable modification within the spirit of my invention as herein disclosed and defined in the claims. The

term safe has been used in a broad and liberal sense to include vaults and other safety deposit receptacles.

What I claim is:

1. A safe having a door, a door-locking bolt and a primary lock mechanism, a secondary bolt lock, releasable means normally holding said secondary lock inoperative, means for causing said secondary lock when released to lock said bolt in a door-locking position, means operative from the exterior of the safe for manipulating said secondary lock to release said bolt, said releasable means including an anchored cable and guides therefor, and a displaceable guide rip additional to said cable and arranged to be displaced by movements of the primary 'lock from normal position.

released to lock said bolt in a door-locking position, means" operative from the exterior of the safe for manipulating said secondary lock to release said bolt, said releasablev means including an anchored cable and guides therefor, and a displaceable guide trip additional to said cable and arran ed to be displaced by-movements of the prlmar-y rock from normal position, and to displace certain of said cable guides. i

3. A sate having a door, a door-lockingv bolt and a primary lock mechanism, in combination with a Secondary bolt lock under yielding strainto move into a position to lock said bolt in a door-locking position, releasable means including a yielding element and a cable operative to normally hold said. secondary lock inoperative, means for releasing the tension on said cable and permitting said secondary lock to become op.-

is displaced, and means. controllable from 1 the exterior of the safe for manipulating said secondary lock to release said bolt.

at. A safe having a door, a door-locking bolt and a primary lock mechanism, in combination with a secondary bolt lock under yieldingstrain to move into a position to lock said bolt in a door-locking position, an anchored cable normally holding said secondary lock inoperative, cable guides, certain of which are displaceably mounted, a tripping device arranged to be moved when said primary lock is displaced and, vWhen moved, to displace saiddisplaceable cable guides, thereby releasing said cable and per mitting'said secondary lock tooperate, and electromagnetic means including a circuit having a circuit controller located at the exterior of the safe. v

. In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

-EARLE M. JONES, 

